Wednesday, May 12, 2010

FOOD

There is no way to avoid it, but then who would want to do that? Certainly not me. This is my 10th full day in Bologna, and I have had about 60% of my meals out, and the remainder I prepared for myself with whatever I had purchased that day.

The easiest way to shop is to go to the Mercato Delle Erbe located in the center of town. This is a huge indoor market with rows of vendor stalls selling a wide variety of fresh produce and baked goods. Surrounding the stalls are a series of small, permanent shops, some selling a variety of groceries and meats, and other specializing in one or more fares such as meats, cheeses, pasta, etc. In a separate section are vendors selling fresh fish.

Small food shops can be found throughout the city, and in small clusters in several of the very old narrow streets by the Piazza Maggiore. In addition, all over the city are one room stores with fruits and vegetable displayed outside under the porticoes. They do not carry fresh meats and cheeses and function more as tiny convenient stores and seem to be operated by asian-italians. The young man in the one in my neighborhood speaks fairly good english, so I get most of my staples from him.

And then there are the outdoor markets, so far I’ve encountered 3 of them: the Mercati della Tera, a monthly organic food market, the markets at Piazza Aldodrovani, and the combined candy, pastry, and food market in central city. I don’t know the frequency of the last 2.

There are so many photos I want to share...tomorrow I'll post more about the markets.